Venti half decaf, half dark roast.

Earlier in the day I sat on the grass outside a Starbucks with six other people.
We had all entered the store,
chose what we wanted,
paid in a variety of ways.

Later, on the second floor,
however its not that way.
These women and men, seated around tables waiting to be fed,
caretakers moving from table to table bringing food to their mouths.

Rainy morning camping

While I was at the water faucet filling my coffee pot
a six year old rode her bike over to check out what I
was doing. I said "Hey, know what happens when you ride your bike in the rain?"
to which she shook her head no. "You get wet." She laughed and said
she didn't mind because she had plenty of dry clothes to put on.
She then told me her dad had said he wished he had a pop up camper like mine
when it rains and I replied it was pretty nice. She then told me one of the secrets of
 happiness. "You know what I like about camping in the rain?, I get to eat blueberry pancakes in the tent."

Amen sister.

Preen my feathers at dusk.

I took a bath with five ducks. As I cleaned the sand from between my toes in preparation for putting my socks on three of the ducks turned there heads backwards, shrugged their shoulders up and stood perfectly still on one leg. They held that pose for as long as I could see them as I walked back through the rapidly darkening woods towards  camp.

Walk around Big Cliff Pond

I had been walking counter clockwise around the pond when I came upon 3 kids. There was 13 and 7 year old girls and a 10 year old boy. The 10 year old said they had been abandoned by thier parents and pointing to 3 kayaks said the wind was blowing to hard to paddle away. The 7 year old was playing at the edge of the water and the 13 year old was stretched out in the equinox sun. The 10 year old then asked me what I knew about solar clocks. He pointed to a circle drawn in the sand with 4 sticks at the cardinal points with a shadow of one pointing to a stone which he said meant it was 12 noon. I asked if he wanted to verify the time with my phone to which the 13 year old, eyes still closed, said "Please God yes! " The phone said it was 11:01 am. After a moment he adjusted the 12 o'clock stick in anticipation of the shadow crossing the stone in an hour. As I started to walk away I said not to worry that they had plenty water to drink from the pond and anyway they might be better off without their parents. That made the 7 year old laugh.

Big and Little Cliff pond at Nickerson State Park.

September 9th, the expirement

I thought that the experiment took place within
the walls of an impervious reaction vessel.
Results showed the vessel was part of the experiment
which makes the Brownian tracks of the ever
continuing results speak with a different voice.
34 times doesn't mark failure,
it marks results that continue to amaze.

Down to my toes.

Approximately 13 pounds of star stuff
meets and holds my gaze. I am held in
the palm of the universe,
eons of evolution ringing
like a bell.